1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus for splitting wood, and in particular, to an automatic cutter assembly for shearing chunks from discs of wood.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Wood has long been used as a fuel for heating and cooking purposes. Millions of cords of wood are used for fuel each year in the United States. In the early history of the United States, wood was the most common source of fuel for cooking. Today, certain aromatic woods such as walnut, hickory and mesquite are still used for outdoor cooking, barbequeing and the like. Such woods are preferred because of the flavor imparted to the food by the wood smoke. Charcoal briquettes are more commonly used as a fuel for outdoor cooking, but are not aromatic. Consequently, according to personal preference, hickory, walnut or mesquite wood is still being used for outdoor cooking, either alone or in combination with charcoal briquettes.
Aromatic wood such as hickory, walnut and mesquite is closed grained and difficult to split. For example, walnut has a shearing strength, parallel to grain, in excess of 1,000 psi. Thus, it is difficult to manually cut and split chunks of wood to the small size needed for outdoor cooking purposes. The wood chunks are preferrably cut to approximately the same size as commercially available charcoal briquettes for obtaining a slow burning, even source of heat for cooking purposes. One of the limitations to commercializing aromatic woods in competition with charcoal briquettes has been the lack of a machine which can automatically split the wood into chunks of apprpriate size on a mass production basis. It will be appreciated that the process can be carried out by the individual user by hand if he so chooses, but to reach a large market, an automatic cutter assembly for producing the wood chunks is essential.